Nazem Kadri could be fit for glaring Rangers need

Maybe Nazem Kadri returns from his eight-game suspension (that is under appeal), leads the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup and is rewarded with a contract extension that would prevent the center from becoming an unrestricted free agent a year from now.

Or, returning to a much more plausible universe, regardless of what the Avalanche or the recidivist do the rest of the way, Kadri is thereafter immediately dangled on the trade market as a depressed asset and sent away following his third suspension in the last four playoffs and sixth overall in nine full NHL seasons. The question in front of Chris Drury — the Rangers’ president-general manager who is holding his coaching search open to accommodate candidates who might become available upon first-round defeats — is whether Kadri represents too much of a gamble on whom to make a short-term wager or whether the veteran’s profile fits the club’s needs to such an extent that the potential reward would be worth the risk.